


I could follow you to the beginning

by frenchtuck



Series: All I Wanted was You [3]
Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: F/F, Mild Angst, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Parent Pleasing, Patricia is also blunt, Post-Canon, RIGHTFUL NAME KHALID, but she is not short, italics!, not sure who claude is, over achieving children
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-22
Updated: 2020-08-22
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:27:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26037898
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frenchtuck/pseuds/frenchtuck
Summary: Edelgard wakes up in a boundless void sometime during her crest removal procedure. She thinks she is alone, as she always has. The figure from her past who greets her has some choice words for her about her attitude.
Relationships: Edelgard von Hresvelg & My Unit | Byleth, Edelgard von Hresvelg/My Unit | Byleth
Series: All I Wanted was You [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1876111
Comments: 3
Kudos: 40





	I could follow you to the beginning

**Author's Note:**

> this is the final installment! as always, feedback is appreciated.

Edelgard had known the removal procedure would be risky. The science was untested, their data was unstable, and Lysithea still had numerous ailments as a result of her own. But when the crimson stains of her own blood started to meet her at every corner she turned, the former empress knew she had no choice. 

*****

When she opened her eyes, there was nothing. She was the only person or thing within the vast expanse of nothingness, still wearing her surgery nightgown.  _ I… this is troubling. Am I dead? _

She felt alive, as far as she knew. She was thinking and breathing and moving with no trouble. She was in less pain than she had been in for months, the scars dancing across her skin were barely noticeable. 

_ The pain is gone. I haven’t felt this in years, and I can’t even celebrate with my wife.  _

“My word, El. Have you always been this short?” A woman’s voice echoed behind her, soft but controlled. It sounded familiar, but the white-haired woman hardly dared to identify it. 

Edelgard turned slowly, disbelief gripping her like the plague. The woman standing behind her wore royal blue garments, and her pale brown hair was spotted with grey. There were slightly more creases on the woman’s face than she remembered, but there was no mistaking who it was.  _ Is that…? _ “Mother?” Edelgard ventured, her heart in her throat. 

The woman smiled and extended her hands. Her lilac eyes were just as warm as Edelgard remembered. She surged forward, pushing herself into the woman’s open arms. Despite having grown since last seeing her mother, Edelgard’s head fit perfectly under her mother’s chin. 

“Goddess, I never thought I’d see you again.”  _ I hope you can still look at me after all these things I’ve done.  _ “Where are we? Where are the others?” The questions spilled out from Edelgard’s lips, her voice frantic and her eyes screwed shut. Her arms remained wrapped steadfastly around her mother’s waist, afraid to let go.

“Hush, my child. One question at a time. Let me have a look at you, dear.” The former queen pulled away from her daughter slowly, looking down to examine her. Edelgard chewed her lip and gazed back.  _ What if she doesn’t approve of me? After everything I did to avenge her? _

The taller woman squinted as she took in the sight of her only adult child. “You’ve got the family eyes, but clearly your father’s height.” The woman brushed a strand of white hair behind her daughter’s ears, an act of tenderness that would have gotten anyone else killed. “You have the ears of your grandmother, my brothers had them too. Dainty little things, you see…” 

The dead queen continued to fawn over her daughter, gracefully pivoting around the topic of her hair and scars. She babbled here and there about her other lost children or her late husbands - _ husbands? Plural?-  _ until Edelgard’s emotions got the better of her.

“Mother, I’ve missed you too, but what of the war? What of everything I’ve done in the name of bringing justice to the church? I have successfully united Fodlan, ascended and abdicated the throne, married, and hunted those who slither in the dark. Why is it you only care to discuss my… my eye color? What of my scars, mother?”  _ What if it was all for nothing? _

Edelgard's eyes nearly spilled over with tears as she glared at her mother. The woman opposite her sighed and reached for her daughter’s hand. When she obliged, the woman grasped her wrist instead, rubbing her thumb over a dense coil of scar tissue that traveled the length of her daughter’s alabaster forearm. 

“Edelgard, dear… did you really change the world of the living for the betterment of the dead?” The woman’s expression was sobering; her lilac eyes were fierce but still tender. Edelgard faltered under the intensity of her mother’s gaze.

_ I remember that gaze… it’s been so long since she used it on me. _

“And what if I did, mother? Is it not appropriate to bring justice to the 10 other children you lost to the negligence of the church?” The former empress bore her eyes back at her mother, their gazes nearly identical.

Patricia von Arundel shook her head sadly, lowering her gaze to her shoes. 

“My sweet child… I lost 10 biological children, but I’ve lost 11 children in total.”

_ Eleven chil… what?  _

“Mother… eleven? What are you hiding?”  _ What wasn’t I told?  _ Edelgard’s voice caught in her throat as her mother regained her composure. 

“It doesn’t matter, darling, but I need you to listen to me. You can’t change the world for the sake of the dead, do you understand?” Edelgard stared at her mother, her expression empty.

“Sweetheart, listen to me. 11 of my 12 children have died in some act of violence, and you hardly survived. Do you think it matters for them how the world changed? They aren’t a part of it anymore.”

“El, my only surviving daughter… mourn the dead, but fight for the living. Do you understand me? I know you’ve lived your life in pursuit of their approval, but it’s time you lived for your own. Seiros is dead now. You can let go.” 

_ I can let go. _

Edelgard considered bursting into tears for a moment but surprised herself with laughter. It started slowly but bubbled through her with an uncontrollable fervor. 

“I always wondered where I inherited my bluntness from, mother. After all this time, I’m sure it came from you. I guess it’s all I have left of you now.”

The deceased queen chuckled, sadness touching her features. “Yes, it seems you have inherited that from me. I suppose I owe you congratulations and an apology, then.” 

_ I’m… bantering with my dead mother. I couldn’t really ask for more, could I? _

“Mother, how are they? The others?” Edelgard paused, consumed by curiosity. She remembered offhandedly that she was still in her surgery nightgown.

The dead queen inhaled deeply and gripped her daughter’s hand. “They’re ok now, dear. The pain is over. Almost everyone is together again, dear.” Her mother sighed and bowed her head. 

“There’s someone missing, though. Or, someone we’re missing from. If memory serves, we all missed a royal wedding.” 

_ My wedding. My mother was watching my wedding.  _

“But you were there, weren’t you, mother? You were there. All of you.” The former empress grabbed her mother’s other hand and pulled them in to her chest. 

“We were. And it was a lovely service. I couldn’t imagine my daughter marrying the child of Jeralt the Blade Breaker and Sitri the Saint, but I’m truly happy for you.”

_ Sitri the Saint? I’ll have to ask Byleth about that.  _

“In fact,” her mother continued, “It might be the proudest I’ve ever been of you.” 

_ Excuse me?  _

“I waged a war against an unjust god -and won- and you’re proud because I got married?” The former empress was trying to keep her temper at bay, but her late mother was truly testing her patience. 

The woman in blue chuckled and drew her hand to her chest. Despite her amusement, every inch of her was radiating with affection. 

“Yes, El. That is the proudest I have ever been of you.” The late queen gripped her daughter’s shoulders, letting her thumbs grace the girl’s scars. “Getting married was the first thing you have done that was truly for yourself. And for that, I am proud of you. Your wife seems like a wonderful fit for you.”

Tears slipped quietly from the corners of the petite woman’s eyes as she finally understood. 

_ All they want is for me to be happy. And if that is how I can best honor them, then that is what I shall do.  _

“You have to go now, Edelgard. You have a family and a wife waiting for your safe return.” The queen said, straightening herself. “And if memory serves, you do have to be present for Prime Minister Khalid’s first inauguration.” 

Edelgard thought of her friends; the Black Eagle Strike Force, her truest family. She thought of the country of Fodlan, just on the verge of being unified under a new leader whose power could no longer go abused or uncontested. She thought finally of Byleth, the woman she had promised her future to and of the love they still had left to share. 

_ My lost loved ones will be ok without me. They can finally rest.  _

“Alright, mother. Thank you for visiting with me. I miss you all dearly, but it is not my time to join you all. Please give everyone my love.” Edelgard moved to embrace her mother again and the woman returned her fierce embrace, kissing her daughter on the forehead one final time. 

“My El, my one surviving child,” the late queen whispered hoarsely, “remember to enjoy the life you have fought for.” Edelgard nodded in her mother’s arms and closed her eyes. 

When she opened them again, she saw her wife asleep in a chair at her bedside, their hands tightly clasped. There was a dull pain all over her body, but she was filled with hope nonetheless.

*****

_ Edelgard and Byleth led the inauguration procession from the newly constructed parliament building with joined hands. The Black Eagle Strike Force followed, and Prime Minister Khalid von Reigan marched at the end of the procession, his Almyran garments decorated with the new blue, yellow, and red flag of the unified Fodlan. Citizens lined up in the streets cheered and waved flags, but Edelgard hardly heard them as they approached the end of their route. Byleth squeezed her wife’s gloveless hand as the two mounted their carriage and departed the central city of New Blaiddyd. The carriage crested the hills beyond the city walls at sunset, and the once royal couple was gone.  _

**Author's Note:**

> who the fuck is "Claude"?
> 
> my ideal ending is that post CF route, Edelgard abdicates and taps Khalid to act as the Prime Minister. and then she just disappears to live in a bog somewhere that has access to pastries and oil paint. Anyone else?


End file.
